At 3:05 PM -0600 2/3/03, Ken Hohhof wrote:
During this time, the user dials back, gets a different IP address, and his
mailbox is locked. His email client displays the authentication failure
dialog box, typically asking him to retype username and password. If the
"pop lock busy, is another session active?" message is displayed by the
email client, the user typically ignores it and figures it is a password
problem.
RFC 3206 provides an unambiguous means for POP3 servers to inform
clients if an error response is due to a credentials problem or
something else, allowing clients to not assume a password error is
the cause of all errors during authentication. I'm not sure how many
clients and servers support it yet, but recent versions of Qpopper do.
Typical next problem - he tries retyping his password, screws it up, and now
you have a genuine authentication problem even after the TCP session times
out and the mailbox is unlocked.
Good reason to move to a client that supports [AUTH], or at least
encourage your client vender to do so.
If this is not a dialup user, we still seem to see the problem with some
email clients that get hung up on a certain message or take long enough to
download mail that they hit the automatic timer to check mail again. You'd
think an email client would be smart enough not to check mail again until it
finishes the last check, but not necessarily.
Which clients are these?
--
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak for myself only
-------------- Randomly-selected tag: ---------------
"The meat is rotten, but the booze is holding out."
--alleged computer translation of "The spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak."
